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No. His critique is one of process, not of output quality. He is asserting the existence of an "unconscious human spirit", asserting that ChatGPT "is fast-tracking the commodification of the human spirit by mechanising the imagination", and that we should fight against AI as we would fight against genocide: "just as we would fight any existential evil, we should fight it tooth and nail, for we are fighting for the very soul of the world." Incidentally, I agree with the importance of struggle and soul-work. I agree with the general valence of the lament, but come away with a very different call to action. In particular: I just don't think I have the right to impose luddism on the rest of the world for my particular niche while benefiting lavishly from the rest of the world's alienation form their much more essential labor. To me, it's the ravings of an angry, arrogant, and entitled elitist who fears being dethroned from his comfortable luxury and refined status. And a hilariously hyperbolic one at that. Of all the actual evils I would write something like this about, AI Art probably isn't even in the top 1,000,000. Can you imagine looking at the world today and writing that last paragraph? My god. --- Quotes: > ChatGPT rejects any notions of creative struggle, that our endeavours animate and nurture our lives giving them depth and meaning. It rejects that there is a collective, essential and unconscious human spirit underpinning our existence, connecting us all through our mutual striving. > ChatGPT is fast-tracking the commodification of the human spirit by mechanising the imagination. It renders our participation in the act of creation as valueless and unnecessary. That ‘songwriter ‘you were talking to, Leon, who is using ChatGPT to write ‘his’ lyrics because it is ‘faster and easier ,’is participating in this erosion of the world’s soul and the spirit of humanity itself and, to put it politely, should fucking desist if he wants to continue calling himself a songwriter. > This impulse – the creative dance – that is now being so cynically undermined, must be defended at all costs, and just as we would fight any existential evil, we should fight it tooth and nail, for we are fighting for the very soul of the world. |
I'm not interested in the question of whether an image I make with AI is art or not. I've written decent fiction in my time. Maybe here and there I inhabit the artistic category of "an unpublished genre fiction author." But I can't draw or paint or any of that stuff better than a reasonably talented 11 year old, and I'm 52. If I had artistic pretensions it's not happening.
But once in a while I want to see an image that I can't make and, well, AI boom boom yes here we go.
I don't claim that's art. I don't claim that the AI is an artist any more than I claim that a submarine is swimming. Those categories are irrelevant to my interest, which is simple.
I wish I was artistically talented so I could do stuff and now I can do some of that stuff without being artistically talented.
I feel good about this. It makes me feel better in the world.
Are we going to take this away from billions of people to protect people who can draw and have some training?